A popular use of hook and loop fastening elements has been in articles of footwear for young children who are not yet old enough to be able to tie shoe laces. In most designs, one end of each of a number of straps is mounted to the upper of the shoe, boot or other article of footwear on one side of the tongue of the shoe. The underside of each strap is provided with hook (or loop) fastening elements, and discrete areas on the upper on the opposite side of the tongue mount cooperating loop (or hook) fastening elements. In order to tighten the upper around the foot when it is inserted into the shoe, the straps are extended from one side of the upper, across the tongue and then to the discrete areas on the other side of the upper where the cooperating hook and loop fastening elements engage one another to hold the straps in place. Usually, the straps extend horizontally across the front of the shoe and do not overlap or otherwise contact one another when fastened. Shoes having hook and loop fastening elements of the type described above are convenient and easy for those helping a child to put on his or her shoes, and, as the child gets older, he or she can do it alone. But at some point, the child needs to learn about tie shoes.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to design footwear having some educational value in teaching children how to properly lace and/or tie their shoes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,418 to Silverman et al discloses a shoe in which a continuous lace has one color on half of its length and another color on the other half. The upper, in turn, has eyelets of matching color so that a child is prompted to insert the appropriate portion of the lace into the corresponding eyelet to properly lace his or her shoe. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,642 to Cohen.
A variation of the Silverman et al design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,561 to Moore et al in which opposite ends of a continuous lace are formed with different shapes, e.g. square, triangle etc. The eyelets of the shoe have a shape corresponding to the lace ends, and alternate along the upper so that the shoe is properly laced by inserting an end of the lace into the correspondingly shaped eyelet.